Abdomen, Pelvis, and Perineun

Management

Immediate Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Defibrillation

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Medicines can be used to treat irregular heartbeats and manage symptoms.

Medications

Medicines may be used to help restore the heart rhythm. These medicines are called anti-arrhythmic drugs.

Other medicines that might be used to treat causes of sudden cardiac death or lower the risk of it include:

Beta blockers.
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.
Calcium channel blockers.

Surgery or other procedures

Surgeries and other treatments may be needed to correct a heart rhythm problem, open a blockage, or place a device to help the heart work better. They may include:

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). An ICD is a battery-powered unit that's implanted under the skin near the collarbone — similar to a pacemaker. The ICD continuously monitors the heart rhythm. If the device finds an irregular heartbeat, it sends out shocks to reset the heart's rhythm. It can stop a potentially life-threatening change in the heartbeat.
Coronary angioplasty. Also called percutaneous coronary intervention, this treatment opens blocked or clogged heart arteries. It can be done at the same time as a coronary catheterization, a test that doctors do to find narrowed arteries to the heart.

The health care provider inserts a thin, flexible tube into a blood vessel, usually in the groin, and moves it to the area of the blockage. A tiny balloon on the tip of the tube is widened. This opens the artery and improves blood flow to the heart.

A metal mesh tube called a stent may be passed through the tube. The stent stays in the artery and helps keep it open.
Coronary artery bypass surgery. Also called coronary artery bypass grafting or CABG, this surgery creates a new pathway for blood to flow around a blocked artery to the heart. This restores blood flow to the heart.
Radiofrequency catheter ablation. This treatment is done to block a faulty heart signaling pathway. A problem with heart signaling can cause an irregular heartbeat. One or more flexible tubes called catheters are threaded through the blood vessels to inside the heart. Heat, called radiofrequency energy, on the end of the catheter is used to create small scars in the heart. This blocks the irregular heart signals.
Corrective heart surgery. Surgery may be done to correct heart problems present at birth, heart valve disease or diseased heart muscle.

Heart procedure or surgery can also be done to place heart devices or treat a blockage 1.

CpR
Advanced CPR
See: Loss of Responsiveness

Targeted temperature management (TTM)

In patients who remain comatose after a cardiac arrest. there no difference in neurological benefit or adverse effects at 72 hours, and again 6 months later, between those patients cooled to 33°C (approximately 90°F) as compared to those cooled to a near-normal 36°C (96°F). A large randomized, controlled trial of 939 patients published in the New England Journal of Medicine on December 5, 2013 ,

no patient in this study was allowed to have care withdrawn for an assumed 'poor neurologic prognosis' prior to the protocol's 72-hour post-arrest neuroprognostic evaluation, and further management was determined by results of the protocol's evaluation

The authors of an accompanying commentary expressed that 'modern, aggressive care that includes attention to temperature works, making survival more likely than death when a patient is hospitalized after CPR. In contrast to a decade ago, one half instead of one third of patients with return of spontaneous circulation after CPR can expect to survive hospitalization.' Methods to improve upon neurologic outcomes after cardiac arrest, particularly in hemodynamic optimization and early percutaneous coronary intervention, in addition to implementation of TTM, are being explored further.